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Latest from East Midlands Airport

In passenger travel running anything up to five minutes late is classed as being on time, but with freight 30 seconds is classed as being late and can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful next-day delivery.

The process on the airfield

From the control tower to the airfield, there is one thing that is abundantly clear: running such a huge cargo operation to an immensely tight schedule takes a lot of hard work and commitment from the airport's employees.

The workers who tirelessly aid the loading of freight planes have not a second to spare due to the aforementioned schedule, so we asked an airport manager to fill us in on the airfield going-ons.

"There's nothing that happens on this airfield that he doesn't know about", is how our guide described him, so we were in safe (and knowledgeable) hands.

East Midlands Airport has three aprons. An apron is the area in which planes are parked.

The central apron is for passenger planes.

The east and west aprons are cargo only and have access to over 650,000 square foot of cargo terminals.

These are basically gigantic warehouses that have the capacity to facilitate the sorting of the millions of parcels that pass through the airport.

Once the parcels are sorted into correct sections and orders they are packed into containers.

Our guide explained to us that containers are not a regular shape, but rather have one side curved.

DHL is based at East Midlands Airport. (Image: 2018 Matt Short Photography)

He said: "This means that no space on board the aircraft is wasted, as the containers can be pushed right up to the edge of the plane."

The curve of the container is the exact same shape as the edge of the plane.

Essentially the shape of the container is vitally important to how many parcels can be made to fit onto a cargo plane.

Most of the cargo planes based at East Midlands Airport are former passenger planes.

Once an airline has finished with a Boeing 747, seats, toilets and likewise are stripped out to make the plane an empty shell, again creating more room for a high number of parcels to be loaded on-board.

Looking into a cargo plane, the main thing that is striking is just how big an 'ordinary' plane is without its interior. It's difficult to imagine that a cramped, budget airline plane we sit on when we jet off on holiday is the same as this huge cargo carrier.

Once the containers are ready to be loaded onto a the plane, they are pushed onto an impressive machine which creates a ramp that moves the containers.

How cargo is loaded onto the plane. (Image: East Midlands Airport)

At the opening of the plane used as a door, the containers are met by employees.

Our tour guide told us: "There are workers at the top of the ramp to make sure the containers get there safely and are packed onto the plane as compactly as possible."

It's seems to be a giant, heavy and difficult jigsaw puzzle to get all the containers on the plane, to ensure the parcels get to where they need to be by a certain time.

Considering the accuracy and rigidity that is needed during this cargo operation, it is amazing that planes can land, be unpacked, re-packed and take off again in under an hour.

It is the present and future of e-commerce, as next day delivery becomes more common, and it is happening, and potentially even being led, from right here in the East Midlands.